The Henrietta Marie was not a
special ship when it was built. It did not go on any world-famous
voyages or discover any new lands. It was a common merchant ship
just like lots of other merchant ships from the 1600s but it is
special to us now because it is the only ship of its kind, a slave
trading vessel, that historians have been able to find and identify
in American waters. It is also special because the Henrietta Marie
is our only link to slave trading ships, the people who sailed
them, the cargo they carried, and the horrible conditions Africans
were forced to endure in slave ships while crossing the Atlantic
Ocean.

Compared to the cargo and transport ships which sail the oceans
today, the Henrietta Marie was a relatively small ship. It was
constructed of wood and held together with iron spikes. The ship
was 60 feet long, weighed 120 tons and had a center mast 50 feet
tall. In comparison, the Titanic was almost 900 feet long, weighed
45,000 tons and was 11 stories tall.

The Henrietta Marie made two voyages as a slave ship. Probably
in November 1697, the ship left on its first voyage to Africa and
the Americas. With its many cargo decks, the ship was able to carry
many different kinds of freight for trade, including iron, beads,
pewter, weapons and slaves. The Henrietta Marie could carry about
200 Africans in the cargo area.

After the Henrietta Marie returned to England in late 1698, the
owners began to get her ready to set sail again. They had to round
up a new crew, get investors and refit the ship again. It was not
until September 1699 that the ship was ready to sail again, this
time with John Taylor as captain. The Henrietta Marie arrived in
Africa sometime in December 1699 and Jamaica in May 1700. Soon
after that, while returning to England on the last leg of the
journey, the Henrietta Marie sank off the coast of Florida, where
it lay quietly for almost 300 years before being discovered.